When the smoke cleared after the No Surrender pay per view, a new era for TNA was left standing in the ring. AJ Styles captured the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
AJ Styles Wins TNA Title
AJ Styles is simply one of the best overall performers in the entire wrestling industry. He's the type of guy that you can put up against any other performer in the world and know that he's going to be able to keep up.
Even the diehard fans who despise everything about TNA will have trouble arguing against that.
Knowing that he's one of the best (and extremely loyal) performers, wrestling fans have been begging for TNA to put the world title on AJ Styles for quite some time now.
As the demands from the fans grew louder and louder, TNA still choose to keep the world title around the waist of others (Kurt Angle, Sting, Samoa Joe, and Mick Foley).
At the end of the No Surrender pay per view, though, TNA decided to listen to the fans. The company decided to give people what they wanted.
AJ Styles is your new TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
A New Era
For the last year or so, the critics have bashed TNA for relying too heavily on the veteran wrestlers (established stars like Kurt Angle, Sting, Kevin Nash, Mick Foley, etc) instead of the younger wrestlers.
Over the last few months, though, the company has made moves to silence those critics.
There's been more of a company focus on pushing guys up from the midcard scene. The following wrestlers have been given considerable pushes and television time.
- AJ Styles - He went from battling Booker T for the Legends title to being elevated into the main event title scene.
- Bobby Lashley - TNA has treated Bobby Lashley like a big star since he's showed up. He'll be in the main event soon.
- Eric Young - Eric Young went from being comic relief to establishing himself as one of the top heels in the business.
- Hernandez - It's pretty clear to see that Hernandez has the tools to be the next big thing in professional wrestling.
- Matt Morgan - Still not sure why WWE released this guy four years ago. He's got everything that you want in a professional wrestler.
Other wrestlers have been given good pushes over the last few months as well, but these guys were pushed the most.
What's Next?
The fear right now is that TNA is going to switch the title back to one of the more established heels in the company.
It would be better if AJ Styles was given a lengthy reign.
TNA is in a fortunate position where AJ Styles has plenty of heel challengers waiting for him. Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan, Kurt Angle, Booker T, and Kevin Nash. You have also guys like Sting, Mick Foley, and Bobby Lashley as well.
There's plenty of challengers to keep the belt on AJ Styles until next summer.
Closing Thoughts
I've been asking for TNA to make this move for a very long time now, so I'm obviously pleased with what I saw at No Surrender. Now, it's up to the company to keep him at the top. |
